Huntsville-Madison Chamber visit to Montgomery focuses on roads, cabinet members

MONTGOMERY -- Officials of the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce brought a wish list to Montgomery today topped - as usual - by roads.

John Cooper, the director of the Alabama Department of Transportation, told chamber officials during their annual trip to the state capital that his agency is focused on interstate and federal highways, or what he called "the big rocks."

For Huntsville and Madison County, he said, that means Interstate 565, U.S. 72, U.S. 231 and U.S. 431.

Cooper produced a thick booklet that he said contained a list of the most heavily traveled two-lane state roads in Alabama.

No. 1 on the list is a stretch of Alabama 77 near Gadsden that handles about 25,000 vehicles per day. Cooper said the road is probably heavily traveled because it's near the I-59 interchange.

The only Madison County two-lane state road on the list is Alabama 53, with a count of only 8,900 vehicles per day.

Addressing Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, Cooper said, "And mayor, that's fact-based, and I want y'all to remember that because you are going to fuss at me about the inequity of gas tax distribution."

After analyzing the problem and traveling the state, Cooper joked, "I've concluded the only answer is that 82 percent of the gas tax you folks are collecting is getting lost and is not getting to Montgomery."

One of Gov. Robert Bentley's campaign promises was that Madison County get an 80 percent return on its gasoline tax receipts.

A roadway priority list that signed off on by Madison County officials and presented to DOT include:

Meanwhile, Battle said he was impressed with what Cooper, a native of Marshall County, has done in the short time he has been on the job.

"He knows more in 64 days as highway director than the previous directors we've met," he said.

Battle said the mission of this year's trip to Montgomery was to meet as many of Bentley's new cabinet members as possible.

"Everyone we've met are really all top of field, intelligent people," he said. "If he (Bentley) can hold that leadership together for four years, he'll be doing a heckava job."

House Speaker Mike Hubbard told the group at a breakfast meeting there is legislative momentum behind the Alabama Republican Party's "Handshake with Alabama" proposals.

"Alabamians are accustomed to politicians saying one thing on the campaign trail, then doing another in Montgomery," he said. "Last November, voters delivered a mandate for change. Today, we are delivering on our promises to enact conservative, good-government reforms."

Battle said he had never met Hubbard prior to Wednesday's breakfast.

"He sounds like they are on track and they're moving forward," he said. "It's a different group. We thought we had our game plan together, and all of a sudden after November, we had to make new friends, but that's part of that process."It's a little different than the old days."

In addition to Cooper and Hubbard, the group also heard presentations from Dr. Joe Morton, state school superintendent; Seth Hammett, director of the Alabama Development Office and David Perry, state finance director.